Gunboat scare a test for security

Charleston Post & Courier ^ | 7/16/02 | Tony Bartelme

[PJeffQ]

Gunboat scare a test for security
False alarm sparks action by local maritime interests
BY TONY BARTELME
Of The Post and Courier Staff

The report hit Coast Guard headquarters at about 2 p.m. Monday: four 40-foot gunboats heading fast toward Charleston.

Coast Guard officials, on high alert since Sept. 11, quickly phoned the Navy.

Were any of their vessels in the area? No.

The Coast Guard broadcasted a radio alert. Would the boats please respond?

No answer.

That's when things got serious.

Within minutes, the Coast Guard had a helicopter and a boat unit sweeping the harbor.

The Charleston County Sheriff's Office and the city of Charleston Police Department launched helicopters. The Charleston and North Charleston police departments and the Department of Natural Resources all launched their boats.

Turns out the four gunboats were real - but had nothing to do with al-Qaida. A Navy unit was in the area doing long-range navigation maneuvers, said Cmdr. Gary Merrick of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office in Charleston. But nobody knew that until a Coast Guard official who happened to be at a marina on the Isle of Palms noticed the gunboats tied up there and went over and asked the crews around 3:40 p.m.

"It would have been nice to know that they were in the area, but looking back, it was a great opportunity," he said. The Coast Guard and local maritime interests recently formed a "volunteer port security force," a program to use professional mariners to identify unusual activities in area waterways.

"We're trying to reach out to the professional maritime community and make them the eyes and ears of the port, and the system worked phenomenally well," Merrick said. "They're supposed to report something that's not right, and you don't see (four gunboats) every day."

Bob Bennett, a consultant for the Charleston Branch Pilots Association, came up with the volunteer port security force.

"We're trying to create a kind of maritime terrorist watch," he said, adding that the program began July 1. Participants include harbor pilots, tug boat operators and other local mariners. Vessels in the program will fly a yellow flag with the words "Don't Tread on Me."

Bennett said the Navy boats weren't marked and apparently weren't flying their colors as they headed toward the harbor.

"That wasn't so swift," he said. "They could have been from anywhere."

He said an operator on one of the pilot boats, a Navy veteran, made the initial report. "The Coast Guard did some quick checks, and when the Navy said there were no known persons in the area, everyone went general quarters. The whole place freaked out. It wasn't a drill, but the system worked."

A spokesman for the gunboat unit in Virginia could not be reached. Officials from the Naval Weapons Station referred questions to the Coast Guard.

After Sept. 11, the Coast Guard and state and local law enforcement agencies participated in an intense training exercise to respond to terrorist attacks from the water. It's a pilot program that may be duplicated in other ports. "We had a real good response time," said Dana Valentine of the Charleston County Sheriff's Office.

[Nam Vet]

Gimme a good ol 'Swift Boat' anytime (PCF - Patrol Craft Fast) Twin 50 cal. turret and a piggyback 50 cal -Browning/81mm morter astern. What they call firepower.
http://swiftboats.net/

Nam Vet

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"I saw this and thought about you. Is this the kind of work you are doing?"

What I do is stand a radio watch on the Coast Guard base.
I'm in the Coast Guard Auxiliary but am Coast Guard trained and qualified to handle
all radio and phone traffic to the base.
If a boater is in trouble on my watch, I'm the 1st voice they here.
When I am on watch a regular Coast Guard member is free to do other duties.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Coast Guard Auxiliary Members PING

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

We Need You -- In the wake of the recent attacks on the United States, the Coast Guard Auxiliary will be called upon to provide essential services to the Coast Guard as they focus more heavily on their military missions.  We will need all the help we can get.  You needn't own a boat or even be an experienced boater, since our missions are wide-ranging.  For information about existing Auxiliary missions and the Auxiliary in general, go to our Join the Auxiliary webpage.  You will find there a form through which you can ask that a local Auxiliarist make contact with you to explore the ways in which you can assist Team Coast Guard
and, in the process, do something for our country in its hour of need.
Age 17 and up (no upper age restrictions) Click Here for details.

[StopGlobalWhining]

What if, as a result of the Navy denial of ships in the area (a la TWA 800), and the fact that they weren't flying a flag, the Coast Guard just blew those ships out of the water?

Isn't that what they should have done? If those ships were terrorists, perhaps we'd have another USS Cole type incident to talk about tonight.

[hedgetrimmer]

Bumping for the Coast Guard!

[Nam Vet]

Could you post this for me Bud?..http://members.aol.com/swiftboata/3.jpg..Thanks in advance,

Nam Vet

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"Could you post this for me"

Here you go Brother.

[Nam Vet]

Thanks. Yer a true Gent.
Not only a Gentleman and a Scholar, but a fine Judge of Beautiful Women and Good Whiskey! Heh Heh ;)

Nam Vet

[Travis McGee]

The Mk V fits into a Galaxy with inches to spare. Nice boat, but after my time. (Drat.)

[piasa]

It is a helluva nice boat and given the apparent response time in the article I'm afraid they could have completed whatever they might have set out to do. And this was in broad daylight, with the boats not even trying to be discrete.

The Charleston County Sheriff's Office and the city of Charleston Police Department launched helicopters. The Charleston and North Charleston police departments and the Department of Natural Resources all launched their boats.

... and Barney Fife with his lone bullet in his pocket.

I can picture the DNR paddling to catch them right now.

We need to pay more attention to the ports. Some more sightings like this and maybe people will perk up.

You would have a blast in one of those boats.

[Travis McGee]

The 80' long Mk V boat is not designed to close with the enemy for gunbattles. It is designed to deliver SEALS from far over the horizon to a point some miles off of a coast, where the SEALs get into their raiding craft, usually "zodiacs", rubber boats with outboard motors.

In the terrorism context, the delivery boats are not meant to be seen at all, but just to drop their Islamikazi crew off "over the horizon". The terrorists then use GPS etc to home in on the nuclear power plant or other target in small nearly invisible (at night) rubber boats.

And terrorists will not use anything as splashy as a Mk V, they will use a fishing boat etc.

[piasa]

The boats they mentioned here were described as four 40-footers.

It is true that terrorists won't be using anything as nice and sinister looking as a MK V. Being stealthy isn't always neccessary, though. Sometimes obvious is better. Use the expected to do the unexpected.

Civilian ships- and ports- are accustomed to flotsam and jetsam type of craft around them, and so there isn't a need to be stealthy to approach. The terrorists can easily afford the kind of craft to get in close, IF people aren't more suspicious. Figure out the routine and mimic it, and you can go just about anywhere.

Or there's Port Access Plan B. Hire a stripper from the local terrorist watering hole and entertainment center, and have her drape herself across the deck of a small boat in a manner sure to interest a mariner. Fly a large US flag. Add some fishing rods. It would be like being given the key to the port... the locals might escort you in close but the last thing they would suspect is Islamic terrorism.

[harpseal]

Before 9/11 the local USCG Auxillary units used to help the New London Naval Base with security checks. The civilians were the agressors and in six exercises the Navay lost a nuke boat to the civilians. This was over a several year period. This was a submarine base. Now when it comes to tankers and chemical transport ships and bargessecurity is far lower.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[Travis McGee]

Let's just hope the camel jockies don't go maritime.

[PJeffQ]

SC DNR Enforcement agents are all Deputy US Marshals...
(mainly because they enforce Federal wildlife laws as well as state ones)

[dixie sass]

Something is terribly wrong when the OOD or the CO of the Naval Weapons Station is unaware that four military vessels like that are in the area. Because of the Navy's inefficient behavior there could have been lost of life.

What is these boats had come up river and approached an area guarded by Marines with orders to shoot to kill?

What if one of the Coast Guard Units had fired on and blown up on to the boats.

How stupid!

[dixie sass]

Amazing isn't it. They forgot that we have guarded our bases and service personnel for so many decades that it is ingrained. They protect us and we protect them. It's worked well.

One thing that bothers me, is that on the way to the Wpnsta, there is one or two tank farms (fuel) I can't remember how close to the river they are, but North Charleston just wouldn't be the same if they went up. Goose Creek either with the lng place. Or the chemical factories up river and close by.

The above is all public knowledge.

[PJeffQ]

The tank farms are pretty close to the river... the Hess one is near Westvaco near the 526 bridge... (the Army Depot was originally located across the street from Westvaco... one of the original buildings is still there... before it moved to the Wpns Station..)

[dixie sass]

Yes, correct. I remember when one of those tanks blew up when I was a little kid. We heard it all the way out to James Island.

Oh, by the way Jeff, are you coming to the meeting Saturday?